Smith v. State
Citation | 2020 Ark. App. 46 |
Decision Date | 29 January 2020 |
Docket Number | No. CR-18-897,CR-18-897 |
Parties | DEMORCUS L. SMITH APPELLANT v. STATE OF ARKANSAS APPELLEE |
Court | Arkansas Court of Appeals |
APPEAL FROM THE ASHLEY COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT
REVERSED
This case is before us for the third time. It began as a no-merit appeal, which required rebriefing. Smith v. State, 2019 Ark. App. 319. After the case returned to us, we denied counsel's motion to withdraw and again ordered that the case be rebriefed, this time in merit format. Smith v. State, 2019 Ark. App. 400. This merit appeal is from the circuit court's order revoking DeMorcus Smith's probation on an underlying conviction for failure to register as a sex offender and sentencing him to eight years' imprisonment. Smith argues that the evidence is insufficient to support the revocation. We agree and reverse the circuit court's order.
The circuit court may revoke probation when it finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant inexcusably failed to comply with a condition of the probation. Vail v. State, 2014 Ark. App. 407, at 2, 438 S.W.3d 286, 288. The State bears the burden of proof but need only prove that the defendant committed one violation of the conditions. Richardson v. State, 85 Ark. App. 347, 350, 157 S.W.3d 536, 538 (2004). We will not overturn a circuit court's decision to revoke probation unless it is clearly against the preponderance of the evidence. Leach v. State, 2015 Ark. App. 17, at 5, 453 S.W.3d 690, 693.
In this case, following a negotiated plea of guilty, the circuit court entered an order on September 12, 2017, convicting Smith of failing to register as a sex offender and sentencing him to seventy-two months' probation. The following is a list of the conditions of Smith's probation:
On February 27, 2018, the State filed a petition to revoke Smith's probation alleging that he had violated "rule #10 by failing to report as directed" and "#16 by failing to make payments as directed." The State filed an identical petition to revoke Smith's probation in another case. See Smith v. State, 2019 Ark. App. 401. In that case, the conditions contained provisions 10 and 16 as alleged in the petitions to revoke. The hearings in the two cases were combined. See Smith v. State, 2019 Ark. App. 401; Smith v. State, 2019 Ark. App. 400. At the joint revocation hearing, the State introduced evidence that Smith had been directed to report on various dates in September, October, November, and December 2017 and that he had failed to report on all but two of those dates. The court revoked Smith's probation...
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